Here's chapter 3!
Rob Crawford hurried down the hall and slid into the elevator. Inside, there stood a worried looking nurse standing beside a cart stacked with towels, water bottles and assorted medicines. Next to her, stood an elderly couple, who smiled slightly when Mr. Crawford stepped inside, but he hardly noticed. By the time the shiny elevator finally reached the first floor of the hospital, Rob was the only person left to step off into the busy lobby.
“Um, excuse me?” He asked politely to the young lady behind the counter.
“Oh, I'm sorry, I'll be with you in a minute.” Replied the young nurse, who wore a name tag labeled Penelope. After a period of time that was definitely more than a minute, she finally turned to Mr. Crawford and asked how she could help.
“Could you tell me where the nearest telephone is?” Penelope thought for a moment before mumbling,
“They don't teach you this in medical school.” She then walked out from behind her desk and motioned for Rob to follow her. The two walked over to another counter and the nurse called out for one of her co-workers to join her. After a few seconds of hurried exchanges to hushed for Pita’s father to make out, the second woman threw up her hands and snapped something too explicit to repeat at her colleague and promptly turned back to her computer screen. The first nurse mumbled rude comments about Miranda, which was apparently the other nurses name, all the way back to her desk, while Rob followed close behind, feeling uncomfortable.
“Oh! Silly me!” Penelope exclaimed as she picked up the telephone that had been sitting on a shelf near her desk the whole time. As Mr. Crawford reached for it, she suddenly yanked it back and demanded,
“Wait! Where's your’s?”
“Huh?”
“Your phone. Where is it?”
“I left it at home. Why?” The man answered.
“Oh, nothing.” The nurse presently replaced her suspicious glare with an inhumanly cheery expression. Rob slowly reached out and grasped the telephone with his dominant hand, the left. Penelope made a completely out of context comment about how he was left-handed, leaving Pita’s dad confused and anxious to take the phone and leave.
The man punched in the number and waited for it to pick up. Finally, a happy voice responded on the other end.
“Um, hello. Who is this?” Mr. Crawford questioned.
“Oh. This is Evelynn. How are you? I'm fine, just in case you were wondering! Also-” Mrs. Westbrook talked so fast that it was hard for Rob to keep track of her speech. She went on and on, until he finally stopped her and asked how Pita was doing.
“Oh. She's fi- well, not really. I'm sorry to say, but when I found her, she had already cried herself to sleep on the couch.” This sad statement made Pita’s father want to cry himself. Just then, a confident voice announced,
“Alright that'll be $2.50 if you decide to keep talking with that girlfriend of yours.” After handing over the telephone reluctantly, Rob Crawford turned to Penelope and informed her that he was in the hospital with his pregnant wife. She just shrugged and told him to have a good day, although Mr. Crawford was almost positive that she meant just the opposite. He sighed, turned around, and trotted over to the elevator to be with his wife once more.
Here's an index of characters as of chapter 3:
Pita Crawford- Main character, about o have baby brother, nervous, 8 years old
Rob Crawford- Pita's dad, older, kind, age unknown
Mrs. Crawford- Pita's mom, older, motherly, pregnant, age unknown
Jimmy- Pita's cousin, naughty, about her age
Evelynn Westbrook- Pita's babysitter, older, nice, can't tell cats and parrots apart
Penelope- nurse, young, slightly annoying
Miranda- Also nurse, kind of mean, a little more sensible, Oder than Penelope
Plz comment on your favorite parts of the story!
